The Daily Stand Up
Agile, Scrum and Kanban
There has been a lot said in the last few years about Agile project management methodologies, and I have found that the general feeling is that Agile although not perfect tends to provide better results in software development projects than waterfall and other methodologies. People tend to be very opinionated about it, and in my experience there three dominant positions about Agile: you either love it, hate it or you don’t care, in other words, you do not believe in methodologies at all, you think they are all a waste of time and effort.
I can see where the different of views come from, and in my experience I have been successful working with Agile, specifically Scrum, in software projects, but
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I personally really like Agile, and I have worked very well in teams using Scrum. Yes, we did have problems too, customers with bugs and we also fell behind on the schedule sometimes. But applying Scrum correctly has allowed us to be informed, committed and react quickly to those issues. Everybody in the team is in sync and knows what to expect, stakeholders feel informed and involved, and you can measure progress and forecast releases with a certain degree of certainty. All this with what I would consider very little friction, bureaucracy and with what I would consider a short learning curve, especially compared to other methodologies and frameworks such as Rational Unified Process (RUP).
Agile, Scrum, Kanban and other methodologies are not necessarily perfect nor complete, but they may be a good match, especially if you are running a software project. To be honest, after years writing critical path method (CPM) / Gantt based project management software, I can see that there is a value for every methodology and it depends heavily on the characteristics of the project, and I think you can apply Agile methodologies to projects outside the software and IT industry. The Kanban software development methodology is inspired by the Kanban
We converted to Agile about three years ago and it has been a struggle. We are on our third major change in how we have adopted Agile. There are no strict rules on how Agile is used, only guidelines and general principles. There are many methods and models that can be used. In other words, there is no proper procedure for managing Agile. Encouraging changes and adjustments through creative ideas are all part of the process. The book talks about Scrum which one of the most popular Agile methods. We found that Scrum became stale after three years (teams just going through the motions). Last month we converted to a hybrid of Scrum and another method called Kanban to further engage our team
In order to achieve successful results within established time-frames and budgets, project managers are likely to employ methodologies models. A project methodology is a model that aids managers to plan, design and implement their project goals. Project methodologies are helpful to project manager in any field, for instance, Niel Nickolaisen CIO at the Western Governors University, is an advocate for the agile software development methodology. As these models grants flexibility when dealing with stipulations and scope changes on a project. Needless to say the agile software development methodology is just one example of a varied assortment of methodologies, each with their strengths and weakness. As such, it is up to the project manager to decide which methodology fits their needs, as there isn`t a one fits all solution.
This is not a comprehensive guide to scrum or agile, but rather a brief introduction. And, aims to help you understand the agile framework and know what to expect, and the additional value you receive, when working with an “agile” organization.Let’s get started.
The Agile Methodology Principles makes the development much faster because the primary importance is given to the customer satisfaction and continuously delivers product. Even though requirements change at the ending phase the product is developed. The Agile development insist the self-organizing team which can create requirements, best architectures, best models. The Agile development promotes a distinct way of thinking to build things and methods to deliver continuous improvement of product. It facilitates to make best practices and decisions together. It a development to promote the adaptive planning, continuous improvement, evolutionary development and delivery, and required time to complete work. It encourages for rapid response to change in the whole development cycle. The project team prefers agile development to move in a creative and quick way. The project progress also depends on working software and project environment and support is provided and built by the individuals. They promote the sustainable environment. Constant attention is provided to the technical excellence and best models are given by the agile methodology. This principle helps the project team members
The agile methodology with scrum-based approach has worked effectively for our organization because it is flexible and iterative with continuous feedback and constant communication and favored by frequent and short delivery schedules (Chang, 2010). This approach brings about a high level of competence and high level of motivation to work. It also instills discipline and respect for time by
Scrum Agile Methodologies is the most popular of the methodologies. It is an outline that uses fixed sprints. Once a sprints has ended, a scrum team works together with a new one which starts until the projected is finished. The team consists of:
Agile methodologies promote a structured project management process that encourages self-organisations, accountability and teamwork. These are the best practices that allow customer needs and company goals to be developed through rapid delivery of high quality software and a clear business approach. The software development is based on iterative development that consists of various procedures (cPrime, 2016).
There is a cross section of projects ranging from a few weeks to a few years. There are also a wide cross section of customers, those capable of articulating clearly their requirements and the ones that are not clear on their requirements and the overall outcome to be achieved. The level of programmers within the Information Technology Department, where development work is executed, range from intermediate to advance or above average programming competence. The Waterfall approach is easier to manage and can be utilized for projects where there are clear requirements and the project is determined to be a long term one. Also, this method may be best suited given the organization’s requirements for thorough documentation and project accountability, when it comes to budget and cost. The Agile methodology can be used for projects where the requirements as well as the expectation from the end product are not as clear. The developers that are above average in terms of their competence can also use this method. In addition, the Agile method is also best suited for the projects that would require rapid
Abstract: Agile software development is a conceptual framework for software engineering that promotes development in iterations throughout the life-cycle of the project .Software developed during one unit of time is referred to as an iteration, which may last from one to four week Scrum is part of the Agile movement. It is a lightweight process framework for agile development. The Scrum method is most often used to manage complex software and product development, using iterative and incremental practices. And results have been shown about significantly increase in productivity and reduces time to benefits relative to classic “waterfall” processes. But scrum method also have some problems and to overcome the problems a new approach is proposed
Agile techniques should be used to solve the current issues faced by the company as agile techniques normally being used by the software industry help the business to act in response under the unpredictable situations faced. In Agile methodologies opportunities are been provided to evaluate whether the project is under the direction all through its development cycle. All this is being accomplished with the help of regular tempo kept in work, and the teams must show a product which is having the desired potential.
Among the various approaches adopted in project management is Agile Methodology, one that is mentioned frequently among experts and considered as one of the key approaches adopted in organizations. As pointed out by Stare (2013), Agile Methodology can be described as a particular way that is embraced in the management of projects and teams in Information and Technology among other fields. There are various practices associated with the Agile Methodology and some of them include the ability to assume simplicity, creation of documentation based on value, enabling rapid feedback to all stakeholders, and embracing change among others practices. Since its emergence in project management, various research studies have been conducted in a bid to explore the possibilities of using the Agile Methodology in other industries that are not specifically meant for software development. Given the fact that corporations are
Over the last 13 years, since the publication of Agile Manifesto, Agile has become very popular and there has been a steady rise in the adoption of agile development methodologies resulting into an increased volume of successful projects and highly motivated and self-organized IT development teams.
Agile is a member of software development mode. Actually It is not a technique. I think not only it is a methodology, but also it is a process of development software. It will show and guide us to finish the development step by step according to the project required. However this kind of development mode is driven by human. The human will control the direction of the project.
Agile methodology is an approach to project management and agile software methodology is not a one methodology but a set of methodologies which share common characteristics to achieve business goals. Before 1950’s project management have taken place in an informal way for many eras and after an ameliorating of formal project management methodologies began to be defined and swiftly spared through the industry rather than traditional methodologies. The traditional approach of project management identified a set of sequences of steps to be completed such as initiation, planning and design, execution and construction, monitoring and controlling and completion but not all projects will have every stage and some projects can be terminated before they reach completion. When it derived to IT industry in the past few years there’s been
In conclusion, agile software development is a very exciting and useful approach, although some project suit agile more than others. The collaboration and visibility can provide a much better and rewarding experience for the team to develop software products. Over the last years, many companies dramatically improved their performances